Chelsea owe friendly game to Scottish club from deal struck in 1962

Apologies in advance for sullying the very first day of the World Cup with matters of a domestic nature, but we thought this may just be amusing enough to get away with it.

After perusing the club's transfer papers, the chairman of East Sterlingshire FC found that the Scottish League Two side were still owed a favour by Chelsea.

You see, as part of the £5,000 transfer agreement that took left-back Eddie McCreadie from Shire to Chelsea back in 1962, the Scottish side were promised two friendlies with the Blues; one at home and one away.

The first game was played at Firs Park in 1963 but the return fixture at Stamford Bridge was never honoured.

According to BBC Tayside, Shire chairman Tony Ford realised that his club had been out of pocket for the past 52 years and duly made a friendly approach to Chelsea to ask if they would rectify the situation.

"When Eddie McCreadie went to Chelsea, the agreement was that there would be a couple of friendlies, home and away, and while the one here happened the away game didn't - and now it's 50 years later!" Ford told the BBC.

"At the end of the day, we kept our end of the bargain. The ball is in their court, in a friendly way.

"We've enlisted the help of Pat Nevin, who's done some work for Chelsea TV, and he's banging the drum for us.